John Pendlebury
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
archaeologist who worked for British intelligence during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was killed during the Battle of Crete
Battle of Crete
The Battle of Crete was a battle during World War II on the Greek island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete under the code-name Unternehmen Merkur...
.
Early life
John Pendlebury was born in London, the eldest son of Herbert S Pendlebury and Lilian D Devitt. At the age of eight he blinded himself in one eye with a pencil. After education at Winchester CollegeWinchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
(1918-1923), he obtained scholarships to Pembroke College
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
, Cambridge where he was awarded a 1st class Classical Tripos
Classical Tripos
The Classical Tripos is the taught course in classics at the University of Cambridge, equivalent to Literae Humaniores at Oxford. It is traditionally a three year degree, but for those who have not studied Latin and Greek at school a four year course has been introduced...
in 1927. Despite his disability, he also shone as a sportsman, with an athletics blue
University Sporting Blue
A Blue is an award earned by sportsmen and women at a university and some schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of Blues began at Oxford and Cambridge Universities...
and competing internationally as a high jump
High jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
er.
The archaeologist
In his last school vacation (1923) Pendlebury travelled to Greece for the first time; he visited the excavations at MycenaeMycenae
Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north...
and developed a love of Greece and deep interest in archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. On leaving university in 1927 he won the Cambridge University scholarship to the British School of Archaeology at Athens. Until then he had been unable to decide between Egyptian and Greek archaeology, he decided to do both and studied Egyptian artefacts found in Greece. While in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
he met another archaeology student called Hilda White and they married in 1928.
The climatic differences between Greece and Egypt made it possible to excavate in both countries each year and late in 1928 Pendlebury started excavating at Tell el-Amarna
Amarna
Amarna is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site that represents the remains of the capital city newly–established and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty , and abandoned shortly afterwards...
in Egypt. In 1929 he was appointed by Arthur Evans
Arthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans FRS was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and for developing the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts found there and elsewhere throughout eastern Mediterranean...
curator of the archaeological site at Knossos
Knossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
in central Crete. The job came with the Taverna, situated on the edge of the site this house provided accommodation for the married couple and a centre for social activities amongst the archaeologists.
Pendlebury was one of the early archaeologists who engaged in environmental reconstruction of the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
; for example, as C. Michael Hogan notes, Pendlebury first deduced that the settlement at Knossos
Knossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
on Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
appears to have been overpopulated
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...
at its Bronze Age peak based upon deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
practises.
Pendlebury was Director of Excavations at Tell el-Amarna from 1930 to 1936 and continued as Curator at Knossos until 1934. From 1936 he directed excavations on Mount Dikti
Dikti
Dikti or Dicte is a mountain range on the east of the island of Crete in the prefecture of Lassithi. On the west it extends to the prefecture of Heraklio.According to the Greek Mythology, Zeus was reared on this mountain...
in eastern Crete and continued there until the war was imminent.
War service
Patrick Leigh FermorPatrick Leigh Fermor
Sir Patrick "Paddy" Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE was a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during World War II. He was widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer", with books including his classic A Time of...
said:
... [Pendlebury] got to know the island inside out. ... He spent days above the clouds and walked over 1,000 miles in a single archaeological season. His companions were shepherds and mountain villagers. He knew all their dialects...".
Manolaki Akoumianos, a Cretan and one of the workers at Knossos, said:
...[he] knew the whole island like his own hand, spoke Greek like a true Cretan, could make up mantinadaMantinadaA mantinada, — are Cretan rhyming couplets, typically improvised during dance music. Rhymed Cretan poetry of the Renaissance, especially verse epic Erotokritos, are reminiscent of the mantinada, and couplets from Erotokritos have become used as mantinades. Mantinades have either love or...
s all night long, and could drink any Cretan under the table.
Anticipating the coming war and strategic nature of Crete, Pendlebury eventually succeeded in convincing the British military authorities of the value of his unique knowledge. They sent him back to England for military training, and in May 1940 he returned to Heraklion
Heraklion
Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....
(then called by its Italian/Venetian
Venetian language
Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...
name - Candia) as British Vice Consul, but his job title did not hide from most of the diplomatic community the nature of his duties. He immediately set-to working up his outline plans: improving the reconnaissance (routes, hiding places, water sources and chiefly sounding out the local clan chiefs like Antonios Gregorakis and Manoli Bandouvas. Turkey had relinquished control over Crete only 43 years before and these kapetanios would be the key to harnessing the Cretan fighting spirit. In October, on Italy's attempted invasion
Greco-Italian War
The Greco-Italian War was a conflict between Italy and Greece which lasted from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. It marked the beginning of the Balkans Campaign of World War II...
of Greece, Pendlebury became liaison officer between British troops and Cretan military authority.
By the time Germany had occupied mainland Greece
Battle of Greece
The Battle of Greece is the common name for the invasion and conquest of Greece by Nazi Germany in April 1941. Greece was supported by British Commonwealth forces, while the Germans' Axis allies Italy and Bulgaria played secondary roles...
in April 1941 Pendlebury had laid his plans, unfortunately they could not include the Cretan division of the Greek army which was captured on the mainland. The invasion of Crete
Battle of Crete
The Battle of Crete was a battle during World War II on the Greek island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete under the code-name Unternehmen Merkur...
started on 20 May 1941, Pendlebury was in the Heraklion area where it started with heavy bombing followed by troops dropped by parachute. The enemy forced an entry into Heraklion but were driven out by regular Greek and British troops and by islanders now armed with assorted weapons.
On 21 May 1941, when German troops took over Heraklion, Pendlebury slipped away with his Cretan friends heading for Krousonas
Krousonas
Krousonas is a village and a former municipality in the Heraklion peripheral unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Malevizi, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 4,059 ....
the village of Kapetanios Satanas, which was some 15km to the southwest. They had the intention of launching a counter attack, but on the way there Pendlebury left the vehicle to open fire on some German troops, who fired back. Some Stukas came over and Pendlebury was shot in the chest. Aristeia Drossoulakis took him into her nearby cottage and he was laid on a bed. The cottage was overrun and a German doctor treated him chivalrously, dressing his wounds; he was later given an injection.
The next day Pendlebury had been changed into a clean shirt. The German were setting up a gun position nearby and a fresh party of paratroopers came by. They found Pendlebury who had lost his identity discs and was wearing a Greek shirt. As he was out of uniform and could not prove that he was a soldier, he was put against a wall outside the cottage and shot through the head and the body.
He was buried nearby, later being reburied 1km outside the western gate of Heraklion. He now lies in the cemetery (Grave reference 10.E.13) at Souda Bay
Souda Bay
Souda Bay is a bay and natural harbour on the northwest coast of the Greek island of Crete. The bay is about 15 km long and only two to four km wide, and a deep natural harbour. It is formed between the Akrotiri peninsula and Cape Drapano, and runs west to east...
maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
.
Work by Pendlebury
- 1930 Aegyptiaca. A Catalogue of Egyptian objects in the Aegean area. Cambridge University Press.
- 1933 A handbook to the palace of Minos at Knossos. London: Macmillan.
- 1933 A guide to the stratigraphical museum in the Palace at Knossos (3 vols). London: British School of Art [?Archaeology] at Athens.
- 1935 Tell el-Amarna. London : Lovat Dickson & Thompson.
- 1939 The archaeology of Crete : an introduction. London: Methuen’s Handbooks of Archaeology.
- 1948 John Pendlebury in Crete. Cambridge: University Press. (Published privately after Pendlebury's death – with appreciations by Nicholas Hammond and Tom DunbabinThomas James DunbabinThomas James Dunbabin DSO , was an Australian classicist scholar and archaeologist of Tasmanian origin. His father was , a distinguished journalist. Dunbabin studied at the University of Sydney and then moved to Corpus Christi College, Oxford...
).
Further reading
- Imogen Grundon - The Rash Adventurer: The Life of John Pendlebury (London: Libri, 2007)
- Anthony Beevor - Crete, the Battle and the Resistance (includes info about Pendlebury's wartime exploits)